Meet the Artists: Fabiola Jean-Louis

Meet @fabiolajeanlouis, one of the many contemporary artists whose work is featured in Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room.⁣

Her stunning adaptation of the 19th-century corset dress features a gilded brooch at the neck portraying Ezili Dantor, the loa (spirit) of vengeance in Vodou that helped inspire and guide self-liberated insurrectionists during the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804).

Apart from the jewelry, much of this regal dress is sculpted from modest materials—paper sheets and clay—celebrating the creative and radical aspects of the Black imagination, both of which insist on “making a way out of no way.”

With its bold, saturated colors and generous adornments, the ensemble flaunts Victorian ideals of propriety and allows the assertive wearer to push against gendered and racialized expectations.

Take a virtual tour of the exhibition to explore further.